BACH: A PASSIONATE LIFE with JEG, BBC2/hd, 30.3.13 plus redbutton performances after

[cheesehoven]

We've met your apparently less cheesy relative, Beef

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, enjoyable programme despite some odd moments - "Bach was a scientist who worked in music.." (?!) "Bach was the father of 20 children - and 2 wives..." Eh, what?

We didn't need a psychology professor to tell us that losing your parents before the age of 10 is traumatic, then using that as an explanation of Academic achievement (it could quite easily explain the reverse), then reading out a textbook description of paranoia as a character analysis of the older Bach... surprised to see JEG apparently enthusiastic about all that.

But a good biog., great music in beautiful, often aptly frosty settings! Would have loved more rehearsal footage as some of JEG's comments on the works were striking. And he wasn't bad as a presenter really.

[Thropplenoggin]

Alas, my geographical situation precluded my watching this, though I wonder how much more I would have gleaned of Bach's life that Christoph Wolff's superb biography hasn't already told me.

It would have been nice to see the performances, though.

[scottycelt]

This was a truly wonderful programme. We got everything. Magnificent cathedrals, picture-card winter scenes of Northern German cities, enthusiastic and obviously genuine presentation by Gardiner, intelligent discussion, and all that capped with the glorious sounds of Bach.

Like most I knew about Bach's many children and his strong Lutheran faith etc, but there were so many other 'revelations' about his life and character of which I was completely unaware.

Even if a few of these may have been only partly-true (as stories and anecdotes do tend to get exaggerated/embellished through time) it all made for spellbinding viewing and listening.

What a deliciously rare treat ...

Happy Easter, Everyone!

[MickyD]

Good to see so much enthusiasm for this programme - it would be nice to think that the BBC would take note of it success and go on to give us further quality music documentaries. If the production team of this one were to be in charge, I'm sure we would be in for some more treats.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Alas, my geographical situation precluded my watching this, though I wonder how much more I would have gleaned of Bach's life that Christoph Wolff's superb biography hasn't already told me.

Probably not; but some nice scenery and sublime Music ... and some interesting "personal views" of Bach from talking heads (including Philip Pullman, who summed up the atheist's dilemma when confronted with Bach's Music [something on the lines of "this is the sort of thing that might persuade me that there was a God if I were of a mind to be so persuaded" - but far more eloquently put!)

JEGgers also avoided the "elephant in the room" issue of One Voice per Part which Wolff is also hostile to. Ironically, JEG mentioned how well-written Bach's Music is for the young Musicians he knew would perform it - but this wasn't demonstrated. I suppose that, if you've got the superb Musicians of the EBS and Monteverdi Choir, you flaunt them!

It would have been nice to see the performances, though.

Yup - and the rehearsals: like jayne, I would have cut out the psychoconjecturing for more of this.

[BBMmk2]

I cannot remember, recently, such a wonderful programme as this last night! What the BBC does best and a greeat pity not mnorew like this are shown. That cantata with the duet, was most exilarating, as Calki, put it. BWV62, wasnt it? Plus that young lad playing the organ!! One to watch out for in the future!

[Richard Tarleton]

A marvellous programme.

I was intrigued by the business of the portrait. Who was the German who brought it to the JEG home, who sold/gave it to Princeton? (Its owner?) The interpretation of the musical fragment was nice.

Was Bach diabetic? (See Jared Diamond's latest book, in which this portrait is reproduced and briefly discussed, pp 448-9)

[JimD]

something on the lines of "this is the sort of thing that might persuade me that there was a God if I were of a mind to be so persuaded" - but far more eloquently put!

No, those were more or less the exact words, as I recall. And equally devoid of meaning. I wish he'd confine himself to just being an atheist, without going on about it at every opportunity. The rest of us don't feel the need to do so. Just appreciate the Bach for Heaven's sake. Boom, boom.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i too felt that the psycho profiling as a paranoid personality disorder was trite in the extreme, [evidence?]; and the blather of Ms Starkey about science unilluminating; apart from those few seconds it was an utter delight i am most happy to have recorded ! [smug smiley] ... i found JEG's style helpful and almost domestic in the best sense of friendly welcoming and informative .... i learned much of Bach's life that was new to me

lots more like this please!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

lots more like this please!

[BBMmk2]

I found thyat comment about the disorder quite interesting, actually., possibly because of my working in pyschiatry?

[vinteuil]

I enjoyed it a lot.

I could have done without the talking heads ( the psychologist, the writer who saw Bach as a scientist, the ubiquitous Pullman, the ineffable John Drury ... )

But for someone who doesn't know Germany at all, this was a revelation - the photography, the townscapes, the churches, the organs. The more one learns of the conditions in which he worked the more impossibly mind-boggling his genius seems.

And John Eliot was really good as a presenter - he can be forgiven for promoting the old idea that Bach was struck down at the moment the fugue tails off...

And such joy from the musicians.

[Nick Armstrong]

I enjoyed it a lot.

I could have done without the talking heads ( the psychologist, the writer who saw Bach as a scientist, the ubiquitous Pullman, the ineffable John Drury ... )

But for someone who doesn't know Germany at all, this was a revelation - the photography, the townscapes, the churches, the organs. The more one learns of the conditions in which he worked the more impossibly mind-boggling his genius seems.

And John Eliot was really good as a presenter - he can be forgiven for promoting the old idea that Bach was struck down at the moment the fugue tails off...

And such joy from the musicians.

J Drury was the Dean of King's in my time @Cantab. My Aged P used to refer to him as The Red Dean

[vinteuil]

J Drury was the Dean of King's in my time @Cantab. My Aged P used to refer to him as The Red Dean

... he was the chaplain of my college in my time @Oxon